


Interdimensional Spork

by Anonymous



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV), The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Daemons, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Male Homosexuality, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Teen Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-25 03:30:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21349540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Kevin had somehow always known that he wasn’t quite like other boys.
Relationships: Kevin Cozner & Shawn (The Good Place)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 37
Collections: Anonymous





	Interdimensional Spork

Kevin had somehow always known that he wasn’t quite like other boys. Something was different. Something was not right, his father said. He was quiet and studious and withdrawn and didn’t like loud noises. He did like books and poetry and ballet. That last one he kept secret from his parents because he had a feeling they would become alarmed, that there would be a discussion, that voices would inevitably be raised. 

His daemon wasn’t quite like other daemons either. Still not settled into a fixed form, he – Kevin had a sense it was a he, though it never spoke to him – would flit around him in the shape of a large brown moth for a moment, only to morph into a shimmering green caterpillar the next. Sometimes he was a spider, other times a wasp. Though whatever form he took, he would find a way to cause trouble, to destroy things and make messes. Patroclus, as Kevin had begun to call him, putting all his hope into the name, was forever being chased around the house by Cornelius, his mother’s daemon, who had settled into the form of a swan. Cornelius spent almost every day furiously batting his wings and pecking at Patroclus, while Agatha, his father’s owl, stared on, waiting for the moment of escalation – Kevin dreaded those moments – when she would come swooping in, claws bared.

One morning, sixteen-year old Kevin woke up to a strange man looming over him. He gasped, scooting away until his back was pressed against the headboard, leaving him no way to escape further. His heart pounding, he gaped at the stranger, who, Kevin noted, a shiver running down his spine, looked a lot like a much older version of himself.

“Ugh, finally…” the man said.

The disturbing sense of familiarity gave way to cold horror when Kevin realized that something was missing. Upon waking up, he usually found his daemon in the form of a glistening chrysalis attached to some part of his body, but now Patroclus was nowhere to be seen. Still, when he looked at that man, he felt the same vaguely sickening sense of deep connection he’d always had with his daemon. “Patroclus?” Kevin breathed, wishing for it to not be true.

“Shut up, Nerd, no more of that Patroclus garbage. My name is Shawn. I’m a demon. Thanks to a bunch of idiot humans and a traitorous pig named Michael, who screwed with the time knife and the freakin’ interdimensional spork, I’m stuck here in this weird alternative fantasy dimension where apparently every gross human comes with their own stupid little therapy animal.”

Kevin swallowed against the dryness in his mouth. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.” The man – Shawn? Had he really said his name was Shawn? – was glaring at him, his piercing blue eyes filled with disgust.

“It must have been because of my skinsuit. It was based on you – well, some version of you anyway. Because everything about you screams generic white male. You, you little twerp, are the perfect milquetoast slice of mind-numbingly boring human existence and that’s what I wanted when I picked my human body. So there was a connection there. Only now I seem to be stuck in this…” He threw up his hands in frustration and Kevin found himself staring at Shawn’s grey suit, the maroon tie. It all looked like cheap polyester. Stalking across Kevin’s bedroom, Shawn grumbled, “Well, it’s better than the larva stage… Plus, I got to skip the scary little girl stage entirely, thank God.”

“But a daemon is supposed to take the form of an animal… I don’t see how you could be my daemon.”

Shawn spun around and walked back to Kevin. His shoes left faint imprints on the beige carpet. “Oh, you think I care about that crap. Newsflash – I don’t. Rules are for losers. There was an empty spot for me on this pathetic plane of existence, so I jumped before they could wipe me out. And now you’re my human. Congrats, Dingus.”

This did not seem right. It did not seem right at all. “Does this mean I don’t have an actual daemon?” Kevin ventured. “You’re… something else?” Not just different but wrong, he thought. How would he tell his parents? A tidal wave of panic was rising inside him.

Shawn grinned. It was terrifying. “Oh, Sister, I am a demon alright,” he said, his left eyebrow twitching up.

Feeling light-headed, Kevin reached out. In his concern about his Patroclus’ inability or refusal to communicate with him, he’d read countless books on daemons. He’d even begun studying Latin and ancient Greek in the hope of finding answers in classical texts. And yet nothing had prepared him for this moment. Though he couldn’t deny the aura of malevolence emanating from Shawn, he thought of all the nights he’d spent whispering his secrets to the faint pulsing light inside the cocoon in which his daemon slept. How he’d hugged it to his chest, desperate to feel close to what was supposed to be a part of himself. 

When his hand closed around Shawn’s fingers, the demon pulled a face as if he’d been stung. His skin was warm to the touch, though, warmer than he’d been in any other form. Helplessly desperate for hope, Kevin looked up at him. For the last couple of years, he had tried so hard to ignore the pieces of himself falling into place. There were certain truths he couldn’t deny much longer. His parents wouldn’t accept who he was turning out to be, Kevin already knew this, if he was honest, he had known this for a while. The question was now whether he could accept himself.

“I don’t like humans,” Shawn said, enunciating every word carefully as he held Kevin’s gaze.

“Understandable,” Kevin replied. He nodded and squeezed Shawn’s hand. “Thank you for finally talking to me.”


End file.
